This invention relates to managing power in a computer.
Computer systems typically conserve power by shutting off system devices (e.g., a hard drive, a monitor) when they are idle. A timer associated with each component is reset each time the device is activated. When the timer expires, the device is automatically powered down. Examples include display monitors which are configured to dim after remaining idle for a preset period of time.
Other parameters that affect power consumption include the processing speed of computers and the spin time of disk drives in the system.
In some systems, a user can reconfigure the timer and other power characteristics of a device using specially designed configuration software.